The Environmental Protection Agency’s new Clean Power Plan (CPP) requires that states reduce their electric utility sector carbon dioxide emissions an average of 32% below 2005 levels by 2030. Over 1,560 pages dictate returning CO2 emissions almost to 1975 levels, while our population grows by 40 million.
Some 30 states will have to slash their power plant CO2 emissions by more than 32% and at least 12 will have to implement 40-48% reductions. That is a tall order, since all those states now get 50-96% of their electricity from coal, and all of them depend on coal plus natural gas for nearly all their electric power. Imposing that transition and a conversion to 20% or more expensive and unreliable wind and solar energy by 2030 will be disastrous. It will bankrupt families, businesses, industries, communities and even states.
Electricity rates will rise not merely to the 15-17 cents/kWh in “green energy” states like California, from the 8-9 cents per kilowatt-hour currently paid in coal-reliant states. They could skyrocket to the 36-40 cents/kWh now paid in Denmark and Germany (70-80 cents when taxpayer subsidies are included).
That will hammer everything we make, grow, ship, eat and do. It will impair our livelihoods, living standards, liberties and life spans. And these destructive rules are being imposed by callous, imperious, unelected, unaccountable federal bureaucrats who are circumventing our laws and Constitution; disregarding the clear will of Congress, which has rejected nearly 700 climate bills; and colluding regularly with radical Big Green pressure groups on sue-and-settle lawsuits and new regulatory edicts.
Under the CPP, everything business owners, workers, families and communities strived for their entire lives will be at risk. Millions of workers will lose their jobs, leaving more families destitute and welfare dependent, their sense of self-worth destroyed. Many will have to choose between buying food and gasoline, paying the rent or mortgage, going to the doctor, giving to their church, or saving for retirement.
Families will face severe sleep deprivation, greater stress and depression, and more drug and alcohol abuse, spousal and child abuse, theft and robbery. Nutrition and medical care will suffer. More people will have strokes and heart attacks. More will die prematurely or commit suicide. More elderly people will perish from hypothermia, because they cannot affordto heat their homes properly.
Instead of acknowledging any of this, EPA employs a“social cost of carbon” scheme that places arbitrary inflated costs on damages it claims result from alleged climate risks from using carbon-based fuels. It includes every imaginable and imaginary cost of using fossil fuels – even absurd claims that its anti-energy plan will reduce asthma rates, which have been increasing while pollution rates are going down.
Meanwhile, the EPA and White House ignore even the most obvious benefits of using fossil fuels.
EPA keeps its questionable data and analyses secret, refusing to share them even with Congress or governors. It ignores the fact that global temperatures haven’t budged in 18 years, and no category 3-5 hurricane has hit the USA in a record 9-3/4 years – contrary to all climate alarm predictions. About the only thing EPA does admit is that slashing America’s CO2 emissions, and causing all this economic havoc, will prevent less than 0.03 degrees F of global warming 85 years from now.
These green dictators refuse to debate any of this.Indeed, they do not want anyone to talk about it.
The intolerant Left is “killing free speech,” says liberal commentator Kirsten Powers. It is committed to tolerance, pluralism and reasoned debate only for itself, and only to advance its agenda. Otherwise, it applies “authoritarian demands for intellectual conformity,” and relentlessly vilifies and tries to silence anyone who speaks up, asks inconvenient questions or challenges the “progressive” worldview.
“Free speech,” says George Will, “has never been … more comprehensively, aggressively and dangerously threatened than it is now. Today they are attacking the theory of free speech … the desirability of free speech … and indeed the very possibility of free speech….”
As if on cue, the IRS targeted numerous conservative groups – and the Milwaukee prosecutor and police monitored emails, invaded homes, seized computers and records, and threatened jail for anyone who disclosed these abuses, to intimidate and silence Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s supporters.
Their actions destroy our fundamental First Amendment rights of free speech, assembly, association and debate. Worse, they severely impair the unalienable rights of people to enjoy affordable, reliable energy and the quality jobs, living standards, health and welfare it brings.
“The ruling class demonizes any questioning of its demands,” says Boston University professor emeritus Angelo Codevilla.“The pretexts differ” from issue to issue,” he notes. “But the reality is the same: Bow or be persecuted.… Consequently, if we wish to remain who we are in the face of threats and declamations meant to force us to honor intellectual and moral falsehoods, we have no alternative but clearly and loudly to distinguish between true and false, and fully make the case for what we believe to be right.”
We must not mince words regarding the evils that energy and climate totalitarianism inflict on families, industries, communities and nations. We must confront the deceit and deceivers, abuses and abusers – and present the hard, ugly realities of what life would be under conditions imposed by the eco-extremists.
Right now, we have too many taxes and regulations, too much secrecy and fraud, too many extremists, and far too little accountability in EPA. There is too much eco-religious fervor, too little science and humanity. Poor and minority families are hurt most of all. Our governors, state and federal legislators, attorneys general, courts, next president, and citizen, industry and scientific groups need to take action.
- Gain access to thus far secret EPA, NOAA, IPCC and other data, computer codes, models and studies – and subject them to full review by independent experts, to determine which assertions, policies and regulations are valid, and which are based on serious error, deceptive claims or outright fraud.
- During the review process, suspend and defund implementation of regulations and programs that raise serious questions about their honesty and validity. Terminate rules and programs found to be based on fraud, junk science, doctored data or concocted evidence – and penalize or terminate agency personnel who have engaged in deceptive or fraudulent practices.
- Curb the excessive power and representation of environmentalists and bureaucrats in our government. End the sue-and-settle lawsuits between government agencies and radical environmentalist pressure groups. Cut agency budgets, especially the billions of dollars that EPA and other agencies give to anti-energy advocacy organizations and biased advisory panels.
- Ensure that regulatory agencies and their advisory councils are honest and transparent; that they represent a broader spectrum of expertise, viewpoints and interests than they do now; and that they fully assess evidence for and against proposed regulations, as well as their true benefits and costs.
- Restore federalism and the separation of powers for Congress and state governments, and end the deference that courts too often give to agency discretion and authority for even outrageous actions and power grabs by federal agencies.
- Present true stories of workers and families whose jobs and businesses have been threatened or destroyed by EPA and other government policies, programs and diktats; how these citizens have fought back; and their victories over energy, environmental and economic totalitarianism.
These vital actions will almost certainly be opposed by President Obama, Democrats, environmentalist pressure groups, and other members of the Climate Crisis and Renewable Energy Complex. But they are absolutely essential if the United States is going to have an economic and employment revival, and poor, minority and blue-collar families are to be protected from fraud, regulatory excess and ruling elites.
Well said.
Thank you for a great article.
There is one sure solution. America… welcome to the next president of the United States of America … Mr Donald Trump.
No … don’t laugh. Read Trump’s book, “Time To Get Tough: Making America #1 Again’. After reading the book, the reader is left in no doubt why America must elect Trump as the next US president.
I would think that EPA self important big wig dictators are getting damn scared. There is going to be a lot of house cleaning with President Trump. I can see where Departments like the EPA will be trying to direct their staff to vote against Donald under direct or implied threats.
We should not wait for a new President — McConnell and Boehner MUST just say NO. Congress has the power to stop the EPA in their tracks and must use this power. The evidence shows that CO2 does NOT cause AGW and in fact there has been NO GW in nearly 19 years!! There are nearly NO items in Obama’s support of the EPA policy that is correct. Nearly every item that he uses to justify “Green” energy and the new EPA directives is a lie. There is absolutely no evidence that reduction in CO2 will help asthma patients or pre-mature heart-attacks. There has actually been a decrease in severe storms (both tornadoes and hurricanes). There has been NO increase in forest fires and in truth, Obama’s lack of implementation of The American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 (and FLAME) that he signed in 2009 is a negative and has totally limited the US Forest Service by restricted funding of Wildfire prevention.
Job #1….Force EPA to their original mandate; Clean air and water. Since that has already been accomplished, shut them down!
We all know what needs to be done and so do our elected officials but I guess the payoffs trump the salaries and perks we pay them.
Emphasis on the “Trump”, first name Donald. There are a lot of government empire building dictator bureaucrats that are starting to shake in fear. When President Trump takes over, heads will roll and garbage like the EPA will shrink.
President Obama is beginning to look like Mugabe
How long has this been going on? Like all bureaucracies the EPA has become an out of control, out of touch, apparently bulletproof agency mired in a self anointed, grandiose opinion of its own importance. While the impetus for its creation by
President Richard Nixon, in December, 1970, was a legitimate concern for the environment its deterioration and the resulting effects on human health, this agency has drifted a long way from its primary function. The environments impact on humanity is no longer its primary focus and is of no consequence when it comes to the egregious effect of its edicts; only the exercise of its enormous, unchecked
power to create chaos, the more the merrier. It’s the environment uber alles ostensibly to reduce negative impacts on health based on increasingly dubious science and very questionable evidence, data and its analysis. It’s an agency more concerned about maintaining its relevance by proposing ever more restrictive regulations against an industry described as evil incarnate, than protecting the
environment, and is proving troublesomely adept at doing so. It’s primary focus is social engineering, forcing change on people’s behavior by controlling the cost of a resource critical to the civilized world, energy.
But what is even more outrageous at this point, 40 plus years after the EPA’s creation, is that the US Congress says and does absolutely nothing of consequence to force the EPA and other such organizations to justify their bureaucratic edicts with cold, hard, independently reviewed theories, facts and analysis. The Congress has essentially delegated unquestioned authority to this agency regarding what constitutes environmental pollution and what needs to be done to “save the planet.”
Should the Congress ever decide to do more than feather their own nest they have
the power and the authority to either control these agencies or shut them down. Instead, during the run up to every election there is universal condemnation and promises made to solve issues that have been festering and growing increasingly problematic for decades while post election, more posturing but nothing is done.
For this to change the U.S. Congress will have to revise its own operating
procedures, methods of compensation, benefits and tenure arrangements (a pipe dream) or Americans will have to get out of their comfort zone, educate themselves, demand change and choose candidates from whatever party who speak coherently, factually, confidently, altruistically, without guile and are most likely to strongly oppose the current status quo. Sorry, but they will not be found by listening to a few ten second sound bites emanating from a favorite, heavily biased news media. Responsible citizenship is going to take considerably more effort than that.
Like the IRS, the EPA and their bully tactics, and thinking they know everything about everything make me sick. They know absolutely nothing. God is in charge and will end this world on nobody’s time but His own. There is nothing anyone can do about it. God has provided all the things on this earth that we need for our care, pleasure and the needs of life. We should receive these gifts with all humble thanksgiving, and praise Him with our thanks every single day. They don’t know what they’re doing as evidenced by the toxic river the EPA just C-A-U-S-E-D and made to flow throughout the states of Colorado and the West right this minute. Shut these polluters down, stop sending them any more money to waste, and send them home or to the unemployment lines they deserve for being so blinded by their own importance.
“the toxic river the EPA just C-A-U-S-E-D” – why isn’t the EPA being sued for billions? Why have there not been any arrests? Why hasn’t the EPA been shut down? What the hell is wrong with Americans? You bitch like hell but don’t do a damn thing. Take back your country and start by having the local Washington Sheriff arrest Obama for violating the Constitution and for breaking his Oath of Office. If you just sit there and whine then shut the hell up. Bugger off and keep kissing the butt of the imam in Chief.
My guess is the briefs are being filed as we speak. This will be a very costly lesson for the EPA (and us of course).
This is a great article that needs to read by all in the country. Due to apathy, the Clean Power Plan may be adopted by fait.
Here is a paper the destroys the health arguments for the Clean Power Plan as well as EPA’s new Ozone Rules coming out October 15. The paper is published on The Heartland Institute website Somewhat Reasonable
RING THE CURTAIN DOWN ON EPA OZONE RULES
James H. Rust, Professor of nuclear engineering and policy advisor The Heartland Institute
This is an industry-slanted article. Even if the EPA made a bad mistake recently, we cannot ignore the need to make carbon emmission reductions a priority. I cry bullshit!
Then do us all a favor and stop exhaling.
You foul the air to boot.
It is industry that is keeping you alive and making it possible for you to enjoy a comfortable existence. If you wish to give all that up and exist in stinking poverty and misery, go ahead and do so — just leave the rest of us the hell alone.
Your two options are typically overdramatic. We have the capability to do much better. Wind and solar power capability is HERE. It’s time to reduce our dependency on the big oil and pollution-causing teat.
yeah, right… keep on believing that…
wind and solar are indeed contributory to the total energy pool but it is sheer lunacy to think they can totally support all our energy requirements. especially when people like you want to be up late at night typing up screeds about deniers.
Keep on dreaming Diane. Solar power is great to power highway signs but to power a nation of 310 million only coal and nuclear fill the bill.
To create that much power, solar would have to cover immense areas of land and so many windmills would be needed that they would slow down the wind and totally destroy our climate. To store that power, multi million ton batteries would be needed. Batteries fail and explode from time to time. How about a million ton battery explosion. As long as it is built below EPA offices it would be OK.
Let’s talk pollution. “The average American spends approximately 90 percent of their time indoors. And while most people are aware that outdoor air pollution can damage their health, many do not know that indoor air pollutants can also do the same. Indeed, studies of human exposure to air pollutants by EPA indicate that indoor levels of pollutants may be 2 to 5 times – and occasionally more than 100 times – higher than outdoor pollutant levels. Indoor air pollutants have been ranked among the top five environmental risks to public health. The problems they cause can be subtle and do not always produce easily recognized or immediate impacts on health.” http://www.epa.gov/region1/communitie...
“Weatherizing buildings to increase their energy efficiency could backfire by creating new health risks for occupants, according to a new report that warns climate change and efforts to combat it could worsen indoor air quality.” Bottom line, if you weatherize your house be sure to install an expensive air exchanger. Ironic, no?
If indoor pollution is the primary driver of adverse health outcomes and ventilation of outside air is a solution then why is the agency fixated on atmospheric CO2, Ozone and Methane. Could it be that there is an agenda running amok here, driven by a Legislation by other means EPA? The epidemiological studies are based on respiratory illness based on hospital admissions and deaths via death certificates. Please explain to me how the EPA can discern between respiratory illness caused by indoor vs outdoor pollution? They can’t.
Over the past 20 years pollutants from coal burning plants have been reduced by 90% primarily due to the use of “scrubbers” as mandated by rational EPA regulations. Therefore the current politically driven irrational regulations are addressing the remaining 10% which will impact the Economy adversely.
Oh sht, DO NOT let the EPA know that indoor pollution is so bad. The next we will hear is that all buildings must be destroyed and that we must work and live outside. That would certainly cut down on electrical consumption but increase the use of candles. Oops, sorry, cancel that damn idea, candles burn therefore they pollute.
Welcome to my cave. Long walk, wasn’t it?
If wind and solar were economically feasible and viable, it would not be necessary to coerce people’s earnings out of their pocket to subsidize them. I say that “big oil” and fossil fuels are GOOD and ENORMOUSLY VALUABLE because they keep us alive and make industrial civilization possible. Yes, there may be some side effects that technology must deal with — but there are side effects with many invaluable products: antibiotics and vaccines, for example, have saved countless lives despite their side effects.
Congress must pass a law prohibiting the EPA from regulating naturally occurring atmospheric gases and requiring congressional approval for EPA regulations
The EPA should stick to what they do best Pollute Rivers with old mine waste IDIOTS
The EPA’s Clean Power Plan is analogous to Germany’s “Energiewende” renewable energy program which is causing major problems for their economy.
“Large penetration of renewable energy has not only translated into higher costs for the economy, it is also having profound effects on wholesale electricity markets that could ultimately result in a deterioration of the country’s reliability. Subsidized renewables have dispatch priority over thermal generators and come first in the market’s merit order, thus depressing wholesale prices to levels that are making thermal plants uneconomical. At the same time, increasing amounts of renewables require increasing amounts of back-up and balancing power that only thermal plants can provide. The implications of these developments for reliability are evident.” The problem is that prior to the introduction of utility scale renewables the wholesale market was orderly. The subsidized renewables impact on the wholesale market is destabilizing causing the thermal generators to become unprofitable and no longer viable. Ironically Utility Scale Renewables need the thermal producers to exist due to the intermittency of power production. http://www.finadvice.ch/files/germany_lessonslearned_final_071014.pdf
From the Table of Contents
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF GERMANY’S RENEWABLE POLICIES
Enormous governmental subsidies for renewables
Ever increasing power prices to residential customers
Impact on national competitiveness
Financial impact to thermal generators and reliability
Impact of renewables’ variability on market operations and thermal plants
Expansion and additional investment in the power grid
Repeated redesigns and boom and bust cycles
The lessons learned in Europe prove that the large-scale integration of renewable power does not provide net savings to consumers, but rather a net increase in costs to consumers and other stakeholders. Moreover, when not properly assessed in advance, large-scale integration of renewables into the power system ultimately leads to disequilibrium in the power markets, as well as value destruction to both renewable companies and utilities, and their respective investors. The U.S. has the opportunity to incorporate these lessons learned to ensure the sustainable growth of renewable energy over the long-term, for the benefit of all customers.
One small part of the solution to try to achieve the EPA targets is to chase the EPA out of the State. No EPA means fewer employees means fewer offices means less electricity needed. We can be pretty well guaranteed that the EPA organization consumes well above the average energy.
Today they are attacking the theory of free speech … the desirability of free speech … and indeed the very possibility of free speech….”
Just a lot like islam.